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Columbia Names Dean For Its Journalism School

Lee C. Bollinger, president of Columbia University, said yesterday that Nicholas Lemann, the Washington correspondent for The New Yorker, had agreed to become dean of the Graduate School of Journalism, an appointment that comes at a pivotal time for the school.

Mr. Lemann, 48, is a highly respected journalist who has worked as a reporter and editor at The Washington Monthly, Texas Monthly, The Atlantic Monthly and The Washington Post.

He has also written a number of widely praised books, including ''The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy'' (1999) about the SAT exams.

The appointment, which is subject to a vote by Columbia's trustees, comes after Mr. Bollinger spent more than six months leading a broad review of journalism education by a task force of more than 30 journalists, educators and others -- including Mr. Lemann. The next dean is expected to play a central role in reshaping the school.

Yesterday, the president released a 10-page statement on his conclusions about where journalism education should go, a statement that is expected to contribute to the direction the journalism school takes.

Mr. Bollinger called for more investment in journalism education; a lengthening of the time students spend earning a degree; a broader intellectual base that includes subjects like statistics, economics, modern political theory and philosophy; and opportunities like clerkships after graduation.

''Our aim should be to create educational programs that are so compelling that the most promising future leaders in journalism decide that a professional education is critical to a successful career and life,'' Mr. Bollinger wrote.

Mr. Lemann said that his ideas paralleled many of Mr. Bollinger's and that he had decided to give up much of his writing for now because he was excited at the prospect of reshaping journalism education, a topic he said he had seriously thought about for years.

A Harvard graduate who was president of The Harvard Crimson, the daily student newspaper, Mr. Lemann did not attend journalism school himself. But he said he sometimes wished he had had more schooling beyond his undergraduate years. ''I have gone through life wishing I had three months to read Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli and to discuss the master ideas that are most likely to be of use in journalism and then linking them to the practice of journalism,'' he said yesterday. ''That is a different process from any old undergraduate education, because it is more specific.''

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As a member of the task force, Mr. Lemann helped articulate a vision for a two-year program that would give students a deeper grounding in disciplines like history, law or politics. (The program is currently 10 months long.)

Some journalism experts said yesterday that the path Columbia took was likely to have a sizable impact on other schools.

Charles R. Eisendrath, director of the Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellows at the University of Michigan and a member of the Bollinger task force, predicted yesterday that Mr. Bollinger's recommendations, together with the appointment of Mr. Lemann, would produce ''a strong breath of fresh air wafting through journalism.'' ''It will begin at Columbia,'' he said, ''but it will go far beyond Columbia.''

The dean's post has been vacant since last June, when Tom Goldstein stepped down after five years. David A. Klatell, the associate dean, has been interim dean. Mr. Bollinger suspended the search process last July to start the review of the school's mission. Mr. Klatell said yesterday that he did not expect change to happen overnight but that over 10 years he expected the school to adopt many of Mr. Bollinger's recommendations.

Joe Nocera, editorial director at Fortune magazine, who worked with Mr. Lemann at The Washington Monthly and at Texas Monthly, said that as a manager, Mr. Lemann had ''a calmness about him that is very appealing.''

Mr. Lemann said that he was finishing a long article for The New Yorker -- he declined to say what it was about -- and that he hoped to turn in a book on post-Civil War Reconstruction by the end of the summer. His appointment, if confirmed, would start in September.

Mr. Lemann said he hoped to do some writing as dean, and would maintain a relationship with The New Yorker.

''You can't do everything at once,'' he said. ''I really believe in this idea -- enough to put aside writing as my main activity even though that's what I love doing most.''

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A version of this article appears in print on April 16, 2003, on Page D00002 of the National edition with the headline: Columbia Names Dean For Its Journalism School. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe